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Tuesday, October 18

the three C's... day two

last week nesting took over, i had been in denial due to a non existent Spring and a three week Summer. funny how it never goes along the lines of Autumn not existing and a three week Winter. always the other way round.

it was leaving me restless, my denialing ways...

so after a good old talking to myself, i pulled up my nesting knee socks and got to grips with making the shed more cozy in the hope of putting my restlessness to rest. (that's quite a spiffy last few words, i have practiced saying it very quickly over and over and it is quite the tongue twister)

once my 'dumpties' had made an appearance in our little loungey corner it was inevitable a table of sorts would be required for important things like crochet and cups of tea. i knew this would be coming and therefore over the past few weeks have been keeping my beady eye out in the thrift store, wishing to stumble across a granny coffee table with fab curvy legs. a coat of glossy paint and Voila, the perfect coffee table.

back in the shed this Saturday i huffed and puffed our old IKEA table from out in the garage to inside. i am quite sure now i have said that, and what with the poor cupboard lurking in my garage you may be thinking my garage is a treasure trove of lost souls! our IKEA coffee table came with us in our move to Mossy Shed, and she has done a spiffy job for many a year, but like most things IKEA, the years and the dings become all a little too much. why is it an old piece of furniture only looks better with age and more dings, but an IKEA piece just starts to kind of look sad and a bit pants. (you don't have to answer that, i think i know why).

as this sad table sat there looking at moi and i looking at it, a 'Blue Peter' light bulb moment happened within my cogs. after a few moments of rustling around, i found what i was looking for...

several weeks back whilst loitering in the hardware store in all those aisles which appear to have stood still in time, i came across stickyback plastic in faux wood. well my little heart raced at such a find, i promptly paid for two rolls and rushed home to find a willing victim, but alas there was none to be found... until Saturday that is.

my childhood memories came flooding back, oh why oh why did my mother not have sticky back plastic hanging around our home? oh why oh why had i not saved up all the lids and packaging so i could craft a dolls house 'Blue Peter' style. i sat week after week watching as the presenters would show what they did and then lift out the finished article with a flourish and a "here's one i made earlier" voila moment.

roll on many moons and i have at last dabbled with stickyback plastic and cannot believe i have waited so long, for it is perhaps the most spiffiest easy peasy fix i have ever done. yes it took a little bit of concentration, the sort where one's tongue sticks out a little to aid the fine art of concentrating and yes indeed, some may even say, calling this post 'crafting' is a bit dubious. for layering two lengths of sticky back plastic on an IKEA table and calling it crafting is pushing it, but i do not care, no i do not, such is my love for my newly fauxed coffee table in our nesty corner.

next up, to make our fauxed table feel most loved, an old round tea tray i am thinking, given an easy peasy new coat. yes that is well worth thinking about...

she has been distracted by grannies, a good distraction leading to new things ~ Tif

22 comments:

It turned out so cute and almost Mushroom like!I am sure you will fill it will all kinds of lovelies I grew up in a house in the 70s where sticky paper was everywhere, no cabinet, drawer or shelf was safe from it. We had that wood liner, flowers, little girls playing with dogs, the list goes on and on....My mom still has my dresser from childhood and I am sure you could peel 7 layers of sticky paper like a tree and its rings to show its age.LOLHave a fun time covering thingsAmy

When I was a little girl, I would cover cardboard cigarette packs (no, didn't smoke.. supplied from our little neighbor lady across the street) with woodgrain contact paper. Then I would glue on a picture from a magazine, and it would become a TV for my dollhouse, which I had also covered with same contact paper. I loved using that stuff!!

Oh the Blue Peter days. How I loved every craft...sticky back plastic being my favorite thing in the world. I remember begging my mum to buy some. I think I watched the very first episode...or maybe it was Coronation Street. Love to stroll down Memory Lane.Cheers, English Robin

Dearest Dottie,I am almost always a-nodding my head whenever one of your peachy, spiffy, or happy crafting ways come to light here on your lovely blog. I almost always end up thinking, 'Oh yes, now that's a fine idea indeed!' For I almost always find you most craftily clever and good.

I must admit that this is one time that I find my head vigorously a-wagging side to side with an emphatic no! My granny did, my mother did, but I can not. Faux wood sticky paper is...not for me.

my past attempts at sticky paper crafting have all gone awry with nothing turning out so peachy as your table. your success has inspired me to give it another go as soon as we get settled in our new home!Jen x

Sigh, Tif, I think we here in the southern hemisphere got the non-existent autumn and the 3 week winter! Parts of my garden are starting to die off already and we're only (officially) half way through spring.

*Chuckle*, I'm with Amy, I remember that stuff being on EVERYTHING. Just last year I rescued a lovely old Kitchenette and stripped OFF old crinkled sticky back stuff (if only everyone was as careful in applying it as you are!), and repainted the inside a lovely apple green which makes me smile every time I open it to get my pretty cups out! It's the finished product making us happy that matters! Absolutely 'spiffy' (I really love that word!)

Sorry to be negative, but Fablon will let you down in the end. I've recently acquired a good old table which has had marble-effect Fablon put on it many years ago - I've no idea how I'm going to get it off to make the table all lovely again (ie put a few coats of paint on it). I'm also rehashing an old sideboard which has had Fablon stuck in its drawers (sounds painful) and I cannot prise it loose for love nor money and am going to have to paper over it. But your coffee table does look good - for the present (voice of doom).

Oh my....I must have been channeling my inner dottie this weekend, I stumbled across that exact same paper at the hardware store too and thought I should do something crafty with that! Too funny...love the coffee table's "new spiffy-ness"! You have inspired me to go back to the hardware store and get some rolls for future craftiness.Cheers!Kelly

Your table looks wonderful and I think you've done a truly spiffing job with ye olde sticky-back plastic. I've always found it quite the little devil to work with - much prone to ending up with bumps and blisters in the darned stuff.

oh such fine and peachy memories of sticky back plastic on the one hand,and then on the other,crimes committed by sticky back plastic! ha ha hee hee, love the comments my dears, indeed i am quite sure one day my coffee table in years to come will be in a thrift store and some one will gasp in horror at the faux top!!

oh and just in case a few of you are thinking of tackling it again, i suggest the 'sticking your tongue out slightly, in concentration' method might help with the bubbles and troubles sticky back plastic can bring :)

Wow SBP nostalgia... I never got my Blue Peter badge, which was always a regret from my childhood, although I did get a nice letter from Roy Castle once for nearly not breaking a record. Nice table Tif!

"if i go to sleep at nightknowing i have visited my imagination, however fleeting it may have been, then i know i have spent my day wisely"~ Tif

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